Conventional kitchen sinks today, particularly in low to medium priced houses, as well as in so-called tract houses and many commercial facilities, have four holes on the sink lip. Three of these are used to accommodate a typical faucet assembly (single or double handle) requiring two of the holes for incoming hot and cold water and the third for waste connected to the sink drain of the primary plumbing system.
It is very common for the large majority of homes to have a dishwasher adjacent to the kitchen sink. The fourth hole is used therefore, to accommodate an air gap or vent whose function is designed to prevent waste water from the dishwasher machine from being siphoned back into the dishwasher and is usually mandated by local government regulations. Approved air gap combination plumbing fixtures are available for mounting on a sink or drainboard, usually well away from the faucet which dispenses tap water. Such available air gaps usually consist of three elements: a one-piece molded plastic outer body having inlet and outlet conduits therein with a recess provided in the top of the outer body encompassing the upper ends of both conduits, a removable plastic splash plate fitted into the top of the outer body, and covered overall, to form an air chamber, with a chrome plated cover for cosmetic reasons. A compression nut is provided for screwing onto the outer body to grip the drainboard. These dishwasher waste lines have to be of sufficiently large diameter to handle solid food particles which otherwise would have a tendency to, over time, plug the waste lines.
Furthermore, due to the great variations of potable water quality in this country, many homeowners are either purchasing bottled water or installing water purification systems in their kitchen plumbing systems at significant expense. The two major systems in use for home residence water purification employ either activated carbon or reverse osmosis (RO). The former removes primarily organic molecules which substantially improves the taste as well as removing any obnoxious odors; while the latter, by means of a semipermeable membrane, concentrates undesirable electrolytes thereby requiring disposal of the concentrated waste water. An activated carbon cartridge costs only about fifty dollars, whereas the RO system costs about three hundred to five hundred dollars, these costs exclude installation. In addition, the activated carbon system purifies all the water including filtering fine particle solids, loading up the cartridge for subsequent disposal. Each cartridge has the capability of producing from about 400-600 gallons of treated water. Consequently, carbon systems are a much less expensive way to improve the quality of drinking water and are in great demand. Once installed, when the cartridge is loaded with contaminants it is easily removed and can be replaced by the homeowner in a few minutes. With these purification systems comes a designated drinking water spout.
A problem arises when the homeowner, already having an air gap for his dishwasher, decides to set-up for the inexpensive activated carbon purification system, or for any purified water system for that matter, since the sink lip has no additional opening to accommodate the purified water spout. The plumbing contractor will therefore usually offer the homeowner two options, the one is to replace the entire faucet system, while the other is to drill a new hole in the sink lip. The first option is significantly more expensive, while the second involves the risk that drilling through the porcelain-coated cast iron sink body will result in chipping and/or cracking. Actually, many plumbers today will require the homeowner to sign a disclaimer thereby waiving any damage to the sink should they select the drilling option.
There are a number of prior art patents which have addressed this problem but only insofar as it relates to the use of reverse osmosis water purification systems in the absence of a dishwasher. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,620,241 to Brown; 4,635,673 to Gerdes; 4,771,485 to Traylor; 4,967,784 to Barhydt; and 5,127,427 to Kajpust et al all teach various aspects of solutions to air gap/reverse osmosis waste water problems. Unfortunately, none of these are concerned with the far more prevalent problem of the inexpensive and simple conversion of an existing air gap/dishwasher combination so as to provide a purified water spout in the same sink opening. These prior art patents fail to direct attention to the existence of the dishwasher in the vast majority of not only new, but even older homes in this country today. Furthermore, the question of water conservation does not enter into the reverse osmosis equation. Yet, the reverse osmosis system produces a continuous flow of waste water actually generating more contaminated waste water than it does drinking water, whereas the activated carbon approach generates no waste water at all.
Therefore, there has been and is now a long-felt, unmet need to provide a low-cost, simple, easily manufactured, installed and maintained approach to solve this problem associated with a dishwasher installation using the existing fourth hole already available in the conventional four-opening sink lip. It should be mentioned that five hole sinks can be obtained by special order at a higher cost but this is hardly the way to proceed when one already has a four hole sink.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the disclosure proceeds.